It’s not bad at all IMHO, though some of the later volumes (and there are LOTS) get a little narmy at times. It’s the only modern reimagining of the zombie apocalypse trope that feels right for this day and age. (The shambling cannibal thing has to be passé by now, despite the persistant popularity.)

To be honest, I read through the whole 3 and a half volumes that’s up, and, well, it’s pretty awesome.

In a weird way.

You see, when you’re already dull to all the gore and carnage, and it just won’t shock you anymore, this comic will do it. Not with more blood and guts (since you’re numbed down to that already) but with presenting you with just how terrible humans can be.

I don’t wanna spoil anything, but Shakespear… That bastard…

PS: Thank you Alt Text and Kamino for pointing me to the direction of this comic. I don’t know how to say what else I want to say.

Did Ennis call it commentary? I don’t remember the original volume being preachy about any part of the whole situation. There was no “OMG the zombies are like us” moment, no “the living are the real threat” cliche.

It is “the sickest shit we can think of” but only *if* we’re thinking about an apocalyptic collapse of human society. If you’re not at least a little scared by the concept of crazed, contagious, sadomasochistic murderers and rapists with no magical weak spots, capable of using vehicles, firearms, and just about every advantage the living are normally given in these scenarios… then I don’t want to know what does scare you.

“Gross” does not cancel out “scary”, and “revelatory” was never really implied. “Trite and boring” is of course an entirely subjective designation.

If you’re not at least a little scared by the concept of crazed, contagious, sadomasochistic murderers and rapists with no magical weak spots, capable of using vehicles, firearms, and just about every advantage the living are normally given in these scenarios… then I don’t want to know what does scare you

Generally, things that are reasonable, or at worst require only accepting the supernatural.

‘Everyone is a necrobestialist cannibal rapist just waiting to be released’, on the other hand, isn’t scary, it’s absurd.

I’ve led a fairly sheltered life, but still have no real issue with the premise you describe. I’m perfectly capable of accepting that, stripped of the social structure imposed over the millennia, the human intellect would just dial the basic instincts that remain up to eleven.

The “supernatural” that needs to be accepted there would be the mechanism of facilitating such a ridiculously complex reworking of the psyche in an instant, but suspension of disbelief is just enough to cover that.

I’ve not read it, but I believe the plot of Lord of the Flies is not “Children are isolated, immediately begin butchering and sodomising each other.”
Maybe you can make points through exaggeration, but if you make it implausible, it doesn’t work for a lot of us.
Stripped of millennia of social structure, we’d make another social structure. It would perhaps be more violent, but not hostile to all life.
Kind of like Lord of the Flies. That’s scary because it’s plausible.

I’ve only read the Wikipedia plot summary, but I really don’t think it’s about humans.
How horrible we COULD be in a hypothetical scenario, but not CAN. Humans need motives. We don’t just kill people, we have reasons! Terrible, twisted reasons, but reasons nonetheless.
It sounds a bit over the top and not really my thing, so I don’t think I’ll be reading it.

Have seen the covers in the Comic Previews book each month, and that is more than enough thankyouverymuchly (gratuitous violence towards women really gets me angry, almost boycotted The Addams Family movies because of one episode of The Sandman)

Seconding the question. From what I understand of it, The Sandman possibly made a negative reference to the movies? The first what springs to mind concerning violence towards women with the Addamses is Wednesday’s decapitated doll Marie-Antoinette. Another thing being Uncle Fester, but possibly also Granny, enjoying being put on the rack.

“24 hours” – Issue 6 of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comic is a horror story involving murder & violence. It also references The Addams Family theme from the ’60s television series. Nothing wrong with the Addamses themselves, but unfortunately connected to a comic that was deeply disturbing to (I presume) then young & innocent Guesticus.

One can find “24 hours” online as a .pdf by simply Googling “Sandman Issue Six”.

Yes, like said, it was just one scene in a bar that happened to be playing The Addams Family in the background, unfortunately for me that scene was linked to the TV/Movie series and didn’t want to be reminded of what happened, took me years before could watch the movie and not ‘flash back’ to that scene (still do sometimes, but the reaction/feeling isn’t as bad now)

Bingo! I figured it out allright! :) Then again – I guessed you didn’t want to be reminded of the comic as a whole, which is very bleak, rather than this particular scene, which is rather tame. (People off-panel having consensual sex, judging by their love talk.) Although it seems kinda off-putting to have Dr. Destiny present during all this, twiddling his thumbs.

I admit I don’t fully understand how Dr. Destiny’s powers work. He influences their minds, but it seems there’s still some free choice to their actions, if only in the direction John Dee steers them toward. Also, I interpreted the sex scene as some sort of down time granted to them by Dee, who doesn’t seem to be interested in the sex itself.

There’s no way to tell which couples are getting it on in this scene. Judy may just as well be paired with another woman, if that’s any comfort to you.

Funny you should mention Crossed because the Wish You Were Here webcomic is consistently one of the most horrifying things I read. I often click its link in my RSS feeds and wonder shortly thereafter “How can I be…seeing this?”

Family Values was so-so and Psychopath was pretty bad, you’re right. Some of the shorter Badlands arcs were even worse, story-wise and art-wise, although those are the exceptions.

I highly recommend the webcomic, it’s on par with the original volume… if you can get through the initial dolphin rape scene, which seems to me is there mainly as an early warning system for the more squeamish readers.

I wonder if, in this case, from a game-play perspective, the bug involves breaking restrictions on PvP. It looks like Kingdoms of Arkerra allows PvP based on faction membership, but the Cult practices unrestricted PvP.

In the old MMO, Asheron’s Call, in order to participate in PvP, one had to go through a quest in which one performed a ritual that bound one to a being that was generally perceived as evil. There were sometimes references to PvPers as members of a cult.

This, of course. Frigg’s death is implied by her mace being in Rachel’s possession. T’s writing tends to be very concise. This is a great example of storytelling efficiency. It adds to the amount of atrocities committed without depicting an extra corpse.

Yeah, and Gravedust is also more likely to use the former term. He may have his differences with the Savasi, perhaps irreconcilable ones, but he would rather not refer to them as “Savages.” Not all the Peacemakers are as enlightened about this.

I kind of think Ardaic doesn’t understand the role he and Gastonia actually play.

See there are PC’s and then there are NPC’s.

Gastonia is kind of like a shirt you wear, you wear it because it sets off your eyes. The shirt isn’t important, in and of itself. If the shirt gets dirty, or has a bad hole in it, you take it off and put on another one.

Ardaic just needs to learn he is a straight man, nothing more. He is to provide support. Gastonia is to provide deus ex machina things on occasion, or provide antagonists at times.

This is their place in the natural order. To be blunt Harky is more important to the narrative than Gastonia is.

Or maybe Ardaic understands perfectly that PVP is where the money is, so the long-term focus needs to be kept on the Gastonia-Savages conflict rather than having the players go off on pointless raids against cultists (which may turn out to be devs in disguise anyway).

Of course, if Gravedust explains that the Cult Monster might eventually drop the Holy McGuffin of Plot Resolving, which is their _only hope_ ™ against the Savages…

yet this is only true from the perspective of gastonian toons – if a player rolls a savage races character, then the leader and driving force behind the millitary keeping your own people down and preventing freedom etc

I wonder if your “NPCs need to learn their place” also applies to Bandit.

But then, I also wonder if you actually believe what you’re saying at all.

(To be clear, I do not. Sepia World is less, not more, important to the Guilded Age story than the world that actually has all the colors, and any form of “Shanna stopped H.R., the MMORPG got shut down, and Sy’rnj, Penk, and all the other characters there disappeared midbattle, with the story treating them as irrelevant because, really, they always were” would be an awful ending.)

I never considered that Shanna could pull the plug on the whole thing, but it’s an interesting idea. Maybe the black door that Sundar is facing actually doesn’t represent HR but some sort of in potentia effect that Shanna’s meddling could have on the world?

That brings to mind a question I have. Do you have any idea what book has the strips that had the people detailed, the ones going into the tanks?

I know that:

Byron
Gravedust
Syrinj (okay not clear on where to put apostrophe)
Frigg

Are definitely tank people. Payet Best was, or still is, or something as well.

That is 5. I was kind of thinking Bandit is too. We never really got any resolution about her resurrection, or one that satisfied me. Something was fishy about it.

But now we have others who are important in the story now: Scipio, Emerl, Sundar, Rachel (and I keep waiting to see what they do with Rendar, arguably the most potentially world changing char I have seen). They aren’t actually in tanks in our world surely? So are they characters played by real world players, npc’s, or entities native to this particular fantasy world?

I keep reading this thing because the premise interests me, and I want to see where it goes. But it sure seems to take a while to get any movement going.

I think stories can get dragged out too long (Order of the Stick). There has to be some movement towards a resolution sometime. Heck the author of The Wheel of Time books died before he wrapped his story up.

Comic books go on forever, but most webcomics, including this one seem like they are different animals.

Let’s see, the rebels whom you’ve been fighting on the front lines and who just recently recently reached the limelight or the cultists who have been there for several years and have never been an extremely significant problem before?

Oh yeah, Crossed. I had to look at the comments to be reminded it existed. Not Ennis’ best work. He’s pretty hit and miss as a writer, really. There’s some really good Garth Ennis stuff and then there’s stuff that isn’t. Still, when I read the first volume it didn’t seem that bad. Just not particularly good. It helps if you’ve hit the point where your reaction to gore is ‘booooring’, though.

Guilded Age does not claim ownership of any of the corporate branding that appears in this comic, nor does it claim any affiliation, partnership, or endorsement of any kind. They are used strictly as an artistic choice for the set dressing of the comic.